I'm sitting here with two itty bitty baby bunnies.
I noticed Lily going all crazy in the bushes so I went outside and heard an alarming squeak. I brought the dogs in and walked into the yard to see a frightened little bunny nestled in the grass.
Shit. Don't these animals know about the baby chicks and mice and birds I've killed and that I'm the unintentional Dr. Kevorkian of animal rescue?
I got a dishcloth and scooped him up out of the grass. He was plump and soft and sweet. His big feet rolled behind his ears as he laid in my hand and his wittle bitty bunny wunny nose wiggled. He looked shocked but fine. I put him in a plastic shoe box and then I remembered that Lily had been in the bushes and that this bunny didn't seem capable of running from there to the grass as quickly as would've been necessary. I think this one's big plan was to play possum and hope it worked out okay. It's lucky I intervened because this was probably not a good plan.
So I looked in the bushes and lo and behold, there was one skinnier, skittish bunny with some drops of blood on his tummy. I don't see any puncture wounds but his foot might be hurt.
I started looking around for a nest of nearby bunnies but then I wondered if I was confused by the Easter bunny and couldn't remember if bunnies have nests? I felt foolish then and came inside to Google, only to find out that bunnies DO have nests. I don't see any bunny nests around here though.
These bunnies are the cutest things in the whole wide world. My mom says I have to take them to the wildlife rehabilitation place. But...
I'm pretty sure the plump one wants me to be its mother. It loves me (or it is still in major shock, but I'm pretty sure it just loves me) and I love it too.
I called the wildlife place and they think I should bring them in. I sort of wish I had just said there was only one of them and then I could just keep the fat one and--what? Hope it's mother comes back tonight and they hop off together into the moonlight? That I could rehabilitate it to my yard and it would hang around out of gratefulness? That I'd have one more ungrateful being to take care of?
(our goldfish just died so there is a vacancy).
I know I've got to take it in with its sibling. But--I read that sometimes places that rehab birds of prey or snakes feed the injured baby bunnies to those animals...that would be pretty terrible. In that case, it would have a better chance at my house.
Barely.
10 comments:
Did you really read that about them feeding the fuzzy babies to the big, bad snakes??? Awful!
Just some 411 on the situation. The wild rabbits in my area - we have a lot - actually do build their nests in a hole they dig in the ground. They cover it with fresh grass and you don't know it's there until you step in it or your dog gets wise. Your dog must be good because they line the hole with sticks, fur, and grass and I guess mosts dogs don't find them. A friend had a bunny hole last year in her yard and they never got found out by her keen dog. They just took a few weeks to grow up and then were gone one day. Rabbits in my family's yard haven't been so lucky and a couple took a hit from a lawn mower. Tragic family day.
Finally, I don't think you actually want wild rabbits. Their instincts will kick in soon and they won't be much good as pets. You don't want a jealous hedgehog on your hands either.
The rabbits in my backyard are multiplying at an alarming rate.
what must reggie think? it's reggie right or am I making up that name?
and yes it will have a better chance at the rehab place baby bunnies are the most notorious wild baby for dieing, they always die!
You should have left them...mother rabbits do not stay with their young like cats do. The mother rabbit only feeds the babies once a day, and stays away the rest of the time to try to avoid attracting predators.
It's Ashley the Animal Rescuer! Go Ashley Go! :-)
I thought about putting them back out there once I read that the mother may come back at night but I saw no nests or other bunnies and I think they were just old enough to start exploring and hopped over from another yard. So I wasn't sure where to put them back so that they could be found. Plus, the skinny one's leg is either sprained or broken and he had some dried blood on him--I read that she may reject him if he smells like dogs (but that people were okay because rabbits are mostly acclimated to our smell if they hang out in neighborhoods.)
I snuggled the plump one lots and lots and had Mr. Ashley take them both to the wildlife rehab place this morning. :-( Everyone was sad (except for the skinny bunny).
I hope you took pictures! I want to see how cute they are!
I did get pics and will share them when I find my camera cord! (Soon!)
Baby bunnies are way too cute! It's tempting to want to keep them. But you did the right thing. They do horrible with people. Once they get old enough to be on their own, they get so skittish that you can't even pick them up. They are sensitive little critters.
I worked in wildlife rehab. We NEVER fed the bunnies to anything else. The bunnies were all cared for until they were old enough to be on their own and then they were released into a proper habitat.
Oh, I really, really need to see pictures!
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